Growing competition for jobs in the Chinese civil service appears to have produced a boom in dishonesty, with about 1,000 cheats caught in the national entrance exams this year. Hundreds of thousands of unemployed graduates seek safe berths in government offices, but their desperation to succeed has led to the highest level of cheating on record, according to the China Daily.While 775,000 people wrote the exam — an increase of more than 20 percent year-on-year — only 13,500 jobs were available. Applicants have used increasingly hi-tech fraud to write their papers, with some even using listening devices so accomplices outside can whisper answers into their ears.
More than 300 cheats were caught in exam rooms in November last year, while another 700 were collared after examiners realised their papers shared much conformity, the state administration of civil service revealed. Most of them came from the north-eastern province of Liaoning and the capital Beijing. The administration said it will disqualify cheats this year and, in serious cases, bar them from central and local civil service exams for the next five years.
A huge expansion in higher education and reduced job opportunities because of the financial downturn are thought to be responsible. An earlier report from the official Xinhua news agency says the public had been warned not to buy answers. It added that exam papers are state secrets and those caught leaking them faced three to seven years in prison.
One would-be cheat got into trouble in February after paying a conman 12,000 yuan (Rs.88,800) for a copy of a test paper. When he realised it was a fake, and none of the questions appeared on the actual exam, he complained to the police, who launched an investigation.

(Excerpted and adapted from The Guardian)